12 September 2010

Chorister Tips

As leader of children's songs at church, I have recently made a few mistakes. Here are some tips:

1. If there is a special child whose flamboyant and occasionally violent interpretation of all instructions deters from the reverent atmosphere you are trying to foster, you should by no means prepare a game in which one of the options is "Do an interpretive dance to this primary song while everyone sings it and watches you." Even if there is no way for that child to guess which card it is, Fate will guide the child's hand to that card.

2. If you decide to play "Review House," where you draw a house on the board, and let the kids choose and then do an action for each room in the house as they sing, you may avoid some awkward moments by not drawing a bathroom.

Me: "What do we do in the kitchen?"

Various Children: "Stir! Flip pancakes! Eat! Cook! Open the Fridge!"

Later ...

Me: it dawns, even as I ask, "What do we do in the bathroom?"

Major snickering. Many boys raise hands. Well, you can guess the rest. Needless to say, we didn't act that out while we sang. Hope this helps.